Hades vs Uranus

Recap

I read on a site recently that the most common time people look at Facebook is 3pm on Wednesdays. They say it’s amazingly consistent every week. Now, to be truly honest, it was 3pm EST on Wednesdays, meaning noon here. But that’s splitting hairs.

I’m gonna release this recap on 3pm today because Chris Park-Thomas talks about how a Spirit Time-Out was used effectively, and I think it’s good to read about that. So here we go. This is the Player Formerly Known as Chris Thomas:

There was talk last week about something I never heard about before…the “Spirit Time-Out.” If you didn’t hear about it, trust me, there was talk. And I’m glad. When Hades met Uranus on the field tonight, there were a few heated calls early in the first quarter of the game, and there was a pretty decent chance that bad feelings would continue to escalate turning the whole game into that kind of ugly-feeling grind where both teams accuse each OTHER of having bad spirit (or starting it first!).

Instead, we had a Spirit Time-Out.

About halfway through the first half (5-4 Hades), we had a contraversial foul call where the game came to a stop with both players taking a stand about who was right and who was wrong. This is normally where teams pick sides and stand by their player and prolong the whole thing for 10 minutes (much like this sentence). But instead, both teams came together in a mixed circle to remind each other that good spirit is A THING in summer league.

For those who haven’t heard, captains can now implement Spirit Time-Outs when tempers gets out of hand. With arms around each other, we took the time to remind everyone that we have players with the highest level of experience and those that have just started playing, and we all want this league to be a fun experience for everyone. There will be foul calls we disagree with, but (right or wrong) players have the right to say “I was interfered with” and if you disagree, it’s a do-over. But likewise, this isn’t championship ultimate and we don’t need to call every ticky-tack thing that may be less than perfect execution. We got a group cheer of “Urhades!” and back to the game. And yeah, the disc went back to the thrower.

I liked the Spirit Time-Out. I think there was still a LITTLE bit of edge to the game, but nothing like it could have been. I mean, there were still calls, but nobody got bent out of shape about it.

Okay, so how’d the game go?

Well, Jeni Kwok hits Tidal for the first point of the game. Wait, Jeni and Tidal play for neither Hades NOR Uranus. What? Oh yeah, Uranus was short on women tonight so they picked up a few women-subs and let them get all the glory. Can’t complain. Hades has done pretty well with the women subs in our first 3 games, too. Jeni goes on to throw 2 more goals later on. And Tidal scores again toward the end of the half. Nice pick-ups!

Maggie was a force for Uranus. It started early in point #2 with a steal on D giving her a short field to put it out to Ethan on a fast break to score. 0-2 Uranus.

Hades was able to trade points and get a break to even it up at 3-3. Pulling to them, we invoked Rhea’s STALL COUNT POWER to try to get us over the top. We got some turns and gave some back… so, kind of a longish point. The best play was after we overthrew our cutter (don’t remember who) in the endzone, KJ hucks full field to Max Hattem sprinting open downfield… but Derek Lay chases down Max from behind to tip the disc away at the last moment in the endzone. His closing speed is evidently awesome! A few more turns and calls later, and Armand hits Derek to score for Hades. 4-3.

Y’know, kind of a fair number of turnovers overall for both teams throughout this game. So really, every point seemed like it could have been anybody’s point. Hades got the edge in most of these in the first half to lead 8-5.

Oh yeah, when it was something like 6-5, we notice the teams on the other field doing that line-up-and-walk-past-each-other-slapping-hands thing. Seriously? Their game is over, we’re not even at half! What time is it??? Bill says it’s 9:13. Must have been a blowout. Gotta read that recap. On the flip side, I’m thinking the lights are definitely going to go out on us.

Hades receives in the second half, and Uranus calls on the HAT-D POWER. But Ethan forgot to tell his team about the Hat-D power, so they are short on hats. But I want them to have a good time, so Joy and I lend them all the hats we brought. One of those hats is a chinese rice picker hat (it’s Joy’s, so it’s not racist), and KJ arms himself with it (so again, not racist). KJ makes a bid with his hat on D, but David Reed has the amazing concentration to fight through the hat, make the grab, and throw a nice bender to Armand to score. 9-5 Hades.

But remember, there were a fair number of turnovers from both teams this game, and every point seemed like it could have been anybody’s point. Uranus got in a groove playing tight D, forcing us to take shots downfield that earned them turnovers that converted to scores. Ethan had 2 assists and a goal, Maggie got an assist and 2 goals, the young highschooler John scored twice (once on bookends), KJ handblocked Reed. And it was tied 11-11 !

On the next possession, Hades turns it over again taking a shot into the endzone. But with Uranus having to work it off the sideline cone, Hades own Ivana undercuts the receiver and gets the block. With the short field, Reed feeds Ivana to pull ahead 12-11.

And I don’t know what time it is, but I’m thinking time HAS to be a factor at this point. The lights are sure to go out and I’m hoping we can hold onto the lead until them. We get a turn, Armand hits Mike, and we go up 13-11. I’m feeling better, but when are the lights going to go out?

Uranus receives, and their offense is working. Honey Badger to KJ… 13-12.

Hades receives, but can’t get it in the endzone. Uranus takes over, works it up to half-field… and that’s when the lights went dark.

… which is how Hades likes it … in the Underworld.

OH!!! Saved by the lights! If I had a dollar… So many nail biting times when we’ve completely lost momentum and are about to lose the lead, or we just gained the lead, and you look at your watch and you’re like “please, please, please” and it’s crazy to realize that what you’re hoping for is completely based on how far someone turned a knob.

This is often what these things look like. I’m not saying they’re in every field office, but I know this is what they look like at Balboa.

As you can see, they’re not the most precise things in the world. Usually, when they turn them to give us two hours, I’ve watched people just kind of turn it roughly to where the 2 is. There’s no adjustment. It’s not like they’re lining it up exactly on the 2. They kind of move it in the vicinity of the 2. A small bit off on one of these things is like 15-20 minutes. I think some people believe they run on a digital timer that automatically shuts off when it hits 10pm. Nope. Not the ones I’ve seen.

So now you know.

Also wanted to congratulate the awesome spirit of Hades lending their hats to the other team for the hat power. See now, THAT’s the kind of thing I love to see in Summer League. (Or actually, in most tournaments to be honest.)